


sky above, what are you dreaming of?

by deer_lovely_lily



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: & the second half is, Adam Parrish & Blue Sargent Friendship, F/M, M/M, Minor Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish, Post-The Raven Boys, Post-The Raven King, Pre-Epilogue, Pre-The Dream Thieves, Ronan Lynch & Blue Sargent Friendship, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish Fluff, there are some emo bits dotted here and there but it’s mostly just a cute and fun time, they go on bike rides together and get the closure they deserved, this is mostly just an ode to adam & blue's friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-09-26 15:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20391811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deer_lovely_lily/pseuds/deer_lovely_lily
Summary: Adam didn’t remember the last time he had gone on a bike ride for any reason other than necessity. The old, battered bike he had grown up with was his only mode of transportation between jobs and school, and it showed. Blue pulled up beside him on the path as they cycled, giving him a grin and standing up on her pedals. Adam thought that her bike resembled her in many ways. It was uncanny and interesting; hand painted, probably by Blue herself, with lots of strange patterns that resembled leaves and branches.(aka. blue & adam go on bike rides)





	sky above, what are you dreaming of?

**Author's Note:**

> sky above,  
what are you dreaming of?  
seems like you're all alone,  
do you feel free?
> 
> I can see,  
more than is real to me,  
so come one and open me,  
let me feel free.
> 
> (sky above - jacob collier)

It was the edge of spring. The honey-roasted warmth of summer was slowly seeping its way back into the air, bringing with it the end of another year of high school. Blue could already feel the electrical brewing freedom of a summer in which forests and dreams and magic would be explored with wild and youthful abandon. Just Blue and her boys, a court of adventurers. Unfortunately, the commencing of summer meant longer shifts at Nino’s; extra staff was needed to placate the Aglionby students’ rising demand for unlimited iced tea. Blue had been working since 9am and so far the day had been stretching out tediously; every hour had hung like treacle from the hands of the clock on the back wall.

“Blue, I gotta take these to the back. Could you do the refills for table 6?” Cialina stopped beside her, arms balancing three empty plates and a tray of glasses. Her expression conveyed the particular brand of stress that only employees in the service industry could truly empathise with.

“I got it,” Blue said.

“Thanks, sweet.”

They gave each other brief sympathetic smiles before going their separate ways. There was always an unspoken sense of solidarity that seemed to exist between waitresses, and if Blue was being honest, it was often the only thing that really kept her going through the workday. The knowledge that behind every sweet service smile, her co-workers were also daydreaming about pouring vats of iced tea directly onto every raven boy who ogled at them or called them ‘babe’ made Blue feel a lot more immune to said raven boys. She stuffed her notepad into her apron pocket and swiped a pitcher of iced tea from the counter as she passed. Sidling quickly around the tables, she made her way towards the booth of obnoxious looking raven boys at table 6. One of them noticed her coming and, without pausing in his conversation, snapped his fingers at her as if she hadn’t already been clearly on her way. Blue willed herself to not let her irritation show, and refilled their glasses with as much graciousness as she could muster. She had just filled the last glass and was about to turn back towards the kitchen, when one of the boys tossed her a “_thanks, babe_”. She swivelled back around with a faux smile on her face, and held the half empty pitcher in front of him.

“I’d be really careful about how you talk to waitresses. These pitchers could very easily slip in our hands.”

The other boys snickered but Blue didn’t give them the chance to reply; she quickly turned on her heel and stormed back towards the kitchen. She was so caught up in her anger and humiliation as she set the pitcher down on the counter that she barely registered that someone was saying her name.

“Blue?”

She looked up, surprised at the sound of the familiar soft-voweled accent, and saw Adam standing a few feet away from her. He was wearing a grimy white t-shirt and his work coveralls, which had been tied at the waist; his shoulder was lifted slightly, head tilted to the side, as if guarding his face from the rest of the room. He smiled at her when she turned, and lifted his hand in a small wave. Blue's expression softened and she returned his smile, relieved at the sight of someone familiar.

“Hey,” she said softly, resting her hand on the countertop, and tilting her head to the side to mirror his, “what are you doing here?”

He looked up past her for the briefest of seconds as if he had noticed something behind her, and then brought his gaze back to hers.

“I thought maybe you’d like to go on a bike ride after your shift.”

Blue’s heart stumbled pleasantly at the suggestion, and she tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ear.

“Glendower related or-?”

He shook his head, and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, the corners of his mouth tugging up further into a boyish smile. She thought it suited him, that smile, despite his features having to shift considerably to cater to it.

“Just a bike ride. Just us.”

Blue held his gaze, trying not to let her own smile widen too much at the thought of spending some time with him.

“My shift finishes in twenty. I need to call my mom and tell her I’ll be late back.”

Adam pressed his fingers onto the countertop beside him and pushed off it gently, the memory of his smile still traced over his lips.

“Okay. I’ll wait for you outside,” he said, hands in pockets as he walked backwards for a few paces before finally turning and continuing towards the door.

Blue let out a breath, hand still resting on the counter. She was still getting used to the idea of _Blue & Adam_; she wasn’t even sure if they really were a _Blue & Adam _yet, but the thought of it made her feel slightly off balance. She had never dated before; sometimes she got stuck on how to act or what to say. All she knew was that, although a lot had happened since they had first met, Adam still made her heartbeat spin. She watched him push open the door to the parking lot. _I need to tell him why I can’t kiss him._

“Who was _that_?” Cialina leaned on the counter beside her, arms crossed and notepad still in hand. Her smirk brought Blue back to reality, and she stuffed her hands into her pockets defensively.

“Adam. He’s meeting me after work.”

Cialina raised an eyebrow, and glanced over her shoulder to take another look at the boy with the bicycle outside.

“Adam, huh?”

Blue rolled her eyes humorously when Cialina turned back to her with raised eyebrows and a smirk on her lips, and batted her lightly on the arm with her notepad.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

Cialina laughed; “I’m not looking at you like anything. For what it’s worth, I think you make a good couple.”

“You do, hm?” Blue fixed her with a knowing gaze, raising an eyebrow.

Cialina laughed again. It was a musical thing; as warm as it was teasing.

“You’re cute. He’s cute. The pair of you will be dishing out heart attacks left, right and centre.”

Blue felt her cheeks glow warm, but she rolled her eyes.

“That’s a bit of an overstatement, Lina.”

Cialina shrugged and pocketed her notepad, smirking, “I think it’s on the mark. Who could resist Blue and the Bicycle Boy? Oh, you know what? That would be such a good band name."

Blue snorted and shook her head.

“I’m leaving this conversation now. I have use the phone.” She turned away from the other girl and began to head towards the kitchen.

“Have fun on your date, beautiful,” Cialina called, and Blue swivelled around as she walked.

“Stop!” she laughed, cheeks flushing. Cialina pulled out a set of menus from behind the counter as a couple of raven boys walked in, and sent Blue another impish smirk, scrunching up her nose as she replied.

“Nah,”

Blue just had time to stick out her tongue, before Cialina turned around to greet the new customers.

Twenty minutes later, after boxing up some left over pizzas and confirming her next shift with Donny, Blue hoisted her small backpack over her shoulder and waved goodbye to Cialina as she pushed the door open into the parking lot. Adam was sitting against the wall with his elbows propped on his knees, and looking at something on his arm. He lifted it up a little and twisted it to the side as if studying it; as she drew closer she realised that he was watching a ladybird that had landed on him.

“That a friend of yours?” she asked, eyebrow quirked. Adam looked up at her in surprise as the ladybird ventured over his wrist bone.

“I guess so,” he smiled vaguely, and then looked back at the insect. Blue stood above him and they both watched their new friend crawl around Adam’s wrist and over his palm. He held his hand palm up to the sky as it climbed along the length of his index finger; it paused for a second when it reached his fingertip, before opening its wings and taking flight. Blue gave it a little wave goodbye, which made Adam smile.

“You know, some people say that their spots tell you how old they are,” Blue said, as Adam braced his hands on the tarmac and pushed himself up from the floor. “It’s not true, obviously, but I think it's quite funny. Imagine if humans had that,” she added, smirking a little at the thought. Adam dusted his hands off and raised his eyebrows, contemplating this concept.

“Probably would be useful in Gansey’s case,” he pointed out.

“He does have that weird ageless look to him. An old man trapped in a young body?”

“A young body trapped in an old man’s wardrobe,” Adam said, smirking as he began to roll his bike around. Blue snorted with laughter as she crouched beside her bike to unchain it from the bike stand.

"God, you’re right. He dresses like a rich old man on a golfing retreat; those shirts deserve to burn."

Adam bit his lip in a way that betrayed his obvious attempt to hide a smile. She liked it when he smiled like this; it was as vibrant and singular as spotting a rare bird in the wild. She felt her stomach swoop at the sight of it, like a kingfisher diving into a river.

“And the boat shoes,” he said, hands braced on the handlebars of his bike. Blue turned to look up at him with comically wide eyes, as if she had been waiting for him to point it out.

“Oh, the _boat __shoes_. Don’t even get me started.”

She shook her head in disbelief at their friend’s shocking fashion sense and stuffed the bike chain into her backpack, before tossing the bag over her shoulder and standing up. She wheeled her bike around so that it was parallel with Adam’s.

“So,” she said, turning to look at him with a bright smile, “where to?”

* * *

Adam didn’t remember the last time he had gone on a bike ride for any reason other than necessity. The old, battered bike he had grown up with was his only mode of transportation between jobs and school, and it showed. Blue pulled up beside him on the path as they cycled, giving him a grin and standing up on her pedals. Adam thought that her bike resembled her in many ways. It was uncanny and interesting; hand painted, probably by Blue herself, with lots of strange patterns that resembled leaves and branches. She cycled ahead of him as the trail thinned, and for a second Adam thought he saw the patterns come impossibly to life, the branches beginning to escape from the bike and wind their way around her ankles and wrists. He blinked and they were back to normal; it had only lasted a second, but his stomach still swooped uncomfortably at the strange vision. This hadn’t been the first time this kind of thing had happened since he had made the sacrifice to Cabeswater. Ever since the event, there had been a shift in their group, a shift in himself. Adam felt uneasy most of the time these days; it was as if he was always being followed or watched. Haunted, perhaps, was a more accurate word for it. It had the same unpredictable and daunting energy that Noah seemed to radiate sometimes.

“Race you to the top!” Blue called over her shoulder, her crochet top and the ribbons that she had tied to her dungarees billowing behind her.

“Saying that _after_ you’ve already passed me says a lot about you, Blue,” Adam said. She laughed, tipping her head back; she was such a wild and vibrant thing. Adam stood to push down on the pedals as his bike climbed the hill; it didn’t take him long catch up with her.

“Damn,” she said, glancing at him as his bike leveled with hers again.

They shared matching playful expressions with one another before continuing to push their way up the last part of the hill. When they reached the top Blue kicked off her bike, leaving it to fall on its side in the grass. Adam dismounted from his own and set it down beside Blue’s. Wild daisies and blades of grass poked in-between the rods of metal on the wheels. Blue was standing further in the clearing at the side of the trail, looking out over the horizon in front of them with an arm thrust over her forehead to shield her eyes from the early evening sun. Adam put his hands in his pockets and came to stand beside her. The light forced her to squint at him a little as she smiled at him, which made her expression appear conflicted.

"This sunlight suits you," she said candidly, her words quiet in contrast with the wild and loud voice she had been using before. Adam felt the warmth of the setting summer sun on his face and watched it make a hazy golden glow of Blue's skin.

"It suits you too," he said, honestly. Blue lowered her hand from her face and bit her lip, her eyes smiling in an endearingly bashful way. 

“Um, I brought leftover pizza from work," she said, pulling her bag around from her shoulder. Adam could see she was a little undone by the compliment being turned back around on her, and he found her blushing cheeks unbelievably sweet.

They sat on the grass together and Blue unzipped her backpack, pulling out a Tupperware pot. She popped open the lid and set it down on the floor between them, taking a slice of pizza for herself. Adam tentatively picked up a slice and took a small bite. He had to mentally restrain himself from eating it too fast, wanting to savour the taste as much as he could. His next paycheque wasn’t due until the end of the month, so until then, all the essentials in Adam’s life had been stripped down to the barest of minimums. Even _with _his paycheques, he still had to set aside most of the money for rent, school, books, college applications. Proper food was becoming less and less of a priority on his list.

Blue was watching him with a soft expression, leaning back on one hand.

“How's everything at your new place?” she asked, taking another bite of her pizza slice.

Adam let out a slow breath, and turned to face the horizon. He hated that she knew about everything that had happened; or more accurately, he hated that she had found out about it from someone else. He wished he had been given the time to tell her himself. Everything had felt so out of his control. His new life at St Agnes had been difficult to acclimatize to; it felt like he had been thrust into a morphed and unpredictable version of the freedom that he had only planned to experience once he had finished high school. Of course he had _wanted _to leave before then; but he had _needed _to leave on his own terms. He had _needed _to be able to leave that place with his head held high, college acceptance letter in one hand and high school diploma in the other. In the end he hadn’t even been given the choice; he had been thrown into the deep end without so much as a backup plan, and now he was taking up even more shifts at work just to keep his head above the water. 

“It’s different,” he said, finally. “I… hadn't planned to be living on my own already.”

Blue had finished her pizza. Her eyes were settled on the ground between them, and her expression was complicated. He wondered what she was thinking. Then, carefully, as if she were gaining the trust of a woodland animal, she gently touched her fingers on his hand in the grass between them. It was such a tentative gesture, but Adam’s skin burned where her cold fingers touched him. They both looked at her hand resting over his on the ground. Adam remembered what she had said before about kissing. He remembered sitting with her under that tree in her garden not so long ago, after his world had ended, and telling her that he wanted to kiss her. He remembered her eyebrows knitting together as soon as the words had left his mouth. He remembered her telling him that she didn’t want to hurt him.

“I’m really proud of you, Adam,” Blue said, suddenly. He saw that her cheeks were glowing a little, but she didn’t look up from their hands. “I think you’re the bravest person I know. And, well, you can talk to me. If you ever need to.”

Adam felt a lump in his throat. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had told him that they were proud of him. He didn’t know if he ever _had_ heard someone tell him that they were proud of him before. Carefully, he twisted his hand around under hers and slowly laced their fingers together. Blue still kept her eyes fixed their hands, and then, cautiously, she closed her fingers over his knuckles. She looked pained, like there was something holding her back from saying or doing whatever it was that she wanted to say or do; her other hand had unconsciously reached up to touch the corner of her mouth. He desperately wanted to know what it would be like to kiss her, but his mind replayed their brief and interrupted conversation weeks ago, when they had sat looking at one another through those strange stones on the floor of Monmouth Manufacturing. He felt like they would always be looking at one another through those stones; never really able to see the other properly; vision always obscured in some way. He willed for her to look up at him.

“You know you can talk to me about stuff too, Blue?”

She smiled faintly, and closed her eyes. He wished that she would tell him what she was thinking. It felt like he was treading along a delicate line towards her, never sure how far she wanted him to travel along it. Every step forwards felt a little risky.

“I will,” Blue whispered, “one day.”

He understood then that there was something significant that Blue was carrying on her shoulders. Perhaps it had always been there; perhaps he just hadn’t noticed it until now. She squeezed his hand slightly, and opened her eyes, looking up at him finally with a faint smile.

“Maybe on another bike ride.”

* * *

“Parrish!” Ronan appeared in the doorway to the sitting room of the Barns, house-phone pressed against his shoulder. Adam peered at him through bleary eyes from his position lying on the sofa. He felt the vague and sleepy sound of his response hum in his throat.

“Mm?”

“Sargent’s on the phone; said something about, uh - wait - what was it?_”_ This last part was directed at Blue on the other end of the line. Adam heard the muffled sound of her voice as she replied; she already sounded impatient with this conversation.

Ronan scoffed, “A bike ride_. _Seriously. What are you, twelve?”

Adam pushed himself up into a sitting position with his back against the arm of the sofa and stretched his arms up over his head with a yawn. Ronan continued to bicker with Blue on the phone.

“I don’t _know_, worm, he’s sleeping. Yeah, I figured. Well, now he’s not, is he? You made me wake him up.”

Ronan looked at Adam pointedly, before rolling his eyes luxuriously at something Blue had said. Adam grinned as Ronan padded across the living room to sit behind him on the arm of the sofa. He nudged Adam’s back silently with his knee and Adam shifted forwards a little so that Ronan could perch with his legs resting on either side of him.

“Uh huh, sure,” Ronan continued, leaning forwards to drape his free arm over Adam’s torso and pull him closer. Adam breathed in and sleepily glided his hand over Ronan’s arm as he continued to listen to half of the conversation.

“I didn't realise they let twelve-year-olds graduate high school,” Ronan quipped. Adam snorted; he tipped his head back to catch Ronan’s eye. They smirked at one another. Blue’s voice sounded exasperated and it seemed likely that she was on the verge of hanging up soon, so Adam lifted his hand up for Ronan to pass him the phone.

“Alright, alright, calm down. Sleeping Beauty wants to talk to you.” Ronan passed the phone to Adam, who pressed it to his hearing ear.

“Blue?”

"Adam, _finally_,” Blue’s voice huffed through the phone. Ronan dropped his head onto Adam’s shoulder and wrapped both arms around his torso, his face burying into the crook of Adam’s neck. Adam could hear the bustling noises of Nino’s in the background on Blue’s end.

“What’s up?” He asked, trying not to sound too distracted by the warmth of Ronan’s breath on his skin.

“I just wanted to call and see if you’d be up for going on another bike ride with me? I’ve been told I can finish work early today, so I have some time to kill.”

“Oh,” Adam said, surprised. They hadn’t been on a bike ride since that first one the previous year. “Yeah, sure.”

Ronan lifted his head up and moved to perch his chin on Adam’s other shoulder, so that his face was next to the phone.

“Am I invited?” he asked the phone, loudly.

“Tell him _no_,” Blue said to Adam grumpily. Adam smirked and held the phone away from his ear for a moment in order to peer at Ronan teasingly.

“She says ‘no’,”

“Yeah, I heard her.” Ronan grumbled, before pulling the phone, still in Adam’s hand, to his own ear. “Why the fuck not, Sargent?”

Adam vaguely caught her response: _It’s mine and Adam’s thing_. Ronan made a sour face.

“Since when did you two have a ‘thing’? Actually, you know what, I don’t care.”

Adam laughed as Ronan pushed the phone away from him like a toddler refusing vegetables, and returned to his place on Adam’s other shoulder. Adam pressed the phone back to his ear, the remnants of his smile still lingering.

“Where do you want to meet?” he asked, and Ronan groaned beside him. He suppressed the urge to laugh again.

“I can bike to you guys and we can just cycle around there?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Adam agreed.

“Okay! I’ll see you in like, fifteen?”

“See you then.”

“Bye, maggot,” Ronan added before Blue hung up.

Adam smirked and chucked the phone to the end of the sofa. He shrugged his shoulder so that Ronan would lift his head up, then swivelled around and shifted himself along the sofa, pulling Ronan by the wrists towards him. Ronan obligingly slid down from the arm of the sofa and dropped himself into the freed-up space, one knee pulled up to his chest and the other thrown over Adam’s leg.

“Your date with Blue's all sorted, then?”

“You’re _so_ easy to make jealous,” Adam teased, and Ronan flicked his forehead.

“Shut up,” he smirked, resting an arm along the back of the sofa casually. “I didn't know that you and Sargent go on bike rides together?”

Adam rested a hand on Ronan’s leg, and tilted his head to the side so that it was leaning on Ronan’s arm.

“We've only really been on one. It was just after I made the sacrifice to Cabeswater.” After everything had changed. Ronan gave a low whistle.

“Oh, yeah. Prime bike-riding time, that. Post sacrifice.”

“Shut _up_,” Adam laughed, shoving his shoulder. Ronan grinned sharply, before taking Adam’s offending hand and using it to pull him in for a kiss. Adam smiled against his lips, heart humming contently. When they pulled apart, he affectionately nudged Ronan’s nose with his own. Ronan breathed out a laugh at the gesture, shaking his head slightly.

“Jesus, you’re so fucking charming,” he said, as Adam smirked and lolled his head back onto Ronan’s arm again. “I have a reputation, Parrish. You and your goddamn Southern charm are going to ruin my reputation.”

Adam snorted and scrunched his nose sceptically as their fingers slowly twisted and tangled together.

“What reputation?”

“Ha. Asshole.”

“Right; _a__sshole."_

Ronan smirked and rolled his eyes before lifting Adam’s hand up and pressing his lips to the knuckles in an unexpected display of tenderness. Adam didn’t think he would ever get tired of him doing it; every touch Ronan left on his skin felt like coming home. He watched the shadows of Ronan’s eyelashes painted onto his cheeks; watched his shoulders rise and fall gently with each breath; watched the way he lifted his head, lowering his and Adam’s hands to rest under his chin. Adam could feel Ronan’s heartbeat in his fingers. After a few seconds, Ronan spoke.

“Do you miss it?” he asked, his sharp, glacial eyes fixing on Adam’s in that honest and candid way that they sometimes did. Adam met his gaze, head still resting at an angle on the sofa, and nodded slightly. He didn’t need Ronan to clarify what he was talking about.

“Every day. It kind of feels like a part of me is missing.”

“Me too,” Ronan said softly, dropping their hands into his lap and interlacing his fingers with Adam’s again.

Adam felt it deep in his chest, this sense of loss; it sat uncomfortably behind his ribs. He felt it in the absence of those familiar vines unfurling lovingly around his wrists and weaving in-between his fingers. He felt it in the leaves that no longer curled around his temples protectively, and in the dirt beneath his fingernails that used to hum with life, and energy, and—

“Adam.” He looked up, lifting his head slightly, to see Ronan studying his face with a complicated but resolute expression. “You’re still you without Cabeswater.”

Adam sighed, looking at their interlocked hands in Ronan’s lap.

“I know. I mean, logically, I know that. I just can’t help worrying that I’m… _less _now.”

“Less what?”

Adam looked at him, trying not to let his face give away just how much it hurt to say out loud.

“_Magic_.”

Ronan shook his head, his hand on the back of the sofa coming to rest on the back of Adam’s head, fingers weaving into his uneven hair.

“Parrish. You’ve been magic for as long as I’ve known you. You’re the _magician, _for fuck’s sake. _You _picked that damn card. _You _chose that path for yourself. Cabeswater only helped you get there.”

Adam gave him a lopsided smile, tightening his fingers over Ronan’s knuckles briefly.

“I really am ruining your reputation, huh?”

Ronan’s lips quirked. His hand was resting on the side of Adam’s head, and his thumb brushed over Adam’s temple affectionately.

“Worth it.”

Adam smiled and turned his head towards Ronan’s hand to brush a kiss against the inside of his wrist; the delicate skin was warm and vibrant on his lips. Then he turned back again, leaning into Ronan’s palm. It was a few seconds before Ronan spoke again.

“I had a dream about it last night. Cabeswater.”

Adam lifted his head slightly to look at Ronan properly; he felt his eyebrows knitting together.

“You did?”

“Yeah. But it wasn’t that kind of dream. It was like a fever dream or something.” His dark eyebrows were sharp and pensive over his clear eyes. Adam was quiet; he just waited for Ronan to continue, reassuringly rubbing his thumb over the knuckle of Ronan’s. “I just remember having this perfectly black hole in my chest, about the size of my fist. Here,” he touched his fingertips to Adam’s breastbone with his other hand. Adam could almost feel the absence in his own chest. “It wasn’t a wound or whatever, it was just this gaping black hole that went into nothing. It doesn’t make fucking any sense now that I’m saying it out loud, but it was a dream about Cabeswater. And mom. And Gansey. I don’t know. I don’t know how I know that.”

Adam breathed out slowly; he placed a hand on the nape of Ronan’s neck, fingers ghosting the edge of his tattoo, and looked into the face of boy he loved. He wished there was a way for him to keep Ronan safe from everything that had hurt him. Sometimes the best thing they could do for one another was to just _be _there: to listen, to comfort, to understand. Sometimes that was enough.

“Ronan,” he said quietly, leaning forwards and pressing their foreheads together. Then, slowly, he whispered, “forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.”

Ronan closed his eyes, and Adam saw the corner of his lips twitch slightly at his own recitation being used on him.

“It’ll get better,” he said after a few moments, their foreheads still touching.

“It’ll get better,” Adam agreed, hand on the crook of Ronan’s neck.

Ronan sighed, pulling back slightly to look at Adam’s face properly. His expression looked bracing as he reluctantly asked:

“How long until Blue gets here?”

“She said quarter of an hour,” Adam replied, and Ronan groaned, lolling his head back to look at the ceiling.

“God, _Parrish_. You’ve been sleeping all day and I only get _fifteen minutes _with you?”

Adam laughed, one hand still in Ronan’s and other now resting on his shoulder.

“It was my last day yesterday, I needed to recharge.”

“Jesus, yeah. You’re finally Aglionbro-free.”

“Finally. I just have graduation left to go.”

Ronan smiled that warm, unguarded smile he always seemed to save for Adam, and cupped his face.

“I’m proud of you, Parrish. You worked your ass off for that damn school and you made it out the other side. Despite all the shit that went down last year.” Adam scrunched his nose and smiled as Ronan leaned forwards to place a soft and chaste kiss on his lips. When he pulled back he added; “If that isn’t fucking magic then I don’t know what is.”

* * *

Blue cycled up to the entrance of the Barns; the bumpy road was making it difficult to keep her bike steady but she pushed on in her attempt to keep herself from tumbling over. The expanse of the farm was draped in a soft and golden evening light, making it appear even more magical and mysterious, and a few of Ronan’s dreamt fireflies were floating lazily around the house despite the setting sunlight. She pulled up to the house and saw the porch light flicker on, Adam and Ronan having clearly spotted her from the window. She propped herself up in front of the steps, with one foot on the ground and one still on her pedal. Ronan appeared in the doorway, but he barely had a chance to open his mouth before the small blur of what appeared to be Ronan’s dream creature, Opal, skittered under his arm and skipped down the steps towards Blue.

“Jesus, Opal!” Ronan shouted as she ran and spiraled along the steps to Blue, in chaotic leaps and spins. “I toldyou to never go outside without your boots on if someone’s visiting!”

Opal skidded to a halt in front of the bike at the bottom of the stairs, ignoring Ronan and instead deciding to pluck a handful of drying grass from the ground and toss it in Blue’s face. Blue scrunched up her nose as Opal’s plant-based confetti fell into her hair and over her face.

“Thanks Opal,” she said, brushing the grass off her shoulders and silently thanking her genetics for not making her prone to hay fever. Opal turned and skipped back up towards the door, dodging Ronan as he attempted to flick her when she neared him. Adam had joined him in the doorway and Opal took his hand, gave it a kiss, and then ducked and weaved between their legs to sit behind Adam, clinging to his leg adoringly. He placed a hand on her head absently, whilst Ronan, arms crossed, watched them both with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey Blue,” Adam said, smiling.

“Hey,” she said, returning his smile and giving him a little two-fingered salute. He looked down at Opal, who was still wrapped around his leg rather impossibly, then glanced up at Blue again.

“Just give me a minute.” He pried Opals arms gently from his leg and then crouched down to her level in order to whisper something to her; this seemed to only increase the amount of ardent affection already on her face.

“Sargent,” Ronan greeted, leaving Adam and Opal to continue their whispered negotiations by the door, and walking down the porch steps. Blue’s initial smile at Ronan’s greeting dissolved into a glare directed at his hand when he lifted up his knuckles for her to bump.

“No way, Lynch. You lost your fist bump rights like twenty minutes ago.”

Ronan didn’t move his fist, but rolled his eyes nonetheless.

“Oh, come on. I was just fucking around on the phone. I’m glad you finished high school, worm. I told you, I have a present for you and the road trip twins once you’ve all graduated.”

“For real? I thought you were joking; you actually got us something?”

Ronan just gave her an expression that said _obviously, _and lifted his knuckles up a little higher. Blue smirked and relented, bumping her knuckles to his. He grinned and leaned back on the porch railing, as Adam stood up again and Opal jumped back down the stairs.

“Oi,” Ronan stopped her in her tracks and she looked up at him with her orb-like eyes. “Next time there’s a visitor Adam and I haven’t told you about, you put your damn boots on.”

She pouted and stuck out her tongue, but didn’t seem too phased by her scolding; instead she began to hurtle around the side of the house, swiping at the long grass as she went. Adam jogged down the steps to join them, and placed his hand on the railing behind Ronan.

“I was thinking we could just cycle around some of the bigger fields in the Barns, Blue? Opal’s in an anxious state today about me going too far.”

Blue smiled; she couldn’t help but be endeared by the way Opal acted around Adam. They seemed to understand each other on a level that even Ronan had been taken aback by initially. Blue remembered Adam giving Opal his watch in Cabeswater, that first time they had met her, when she had still been so frightened and confused and lost. Now she seemed so much wilder and freer: so much happier.

“I’m good with that,” Blue replied, rotating her pedal back up and around with the toe of her shoe. “As long as it’s not too bumpy; my bike might fall apart.”

“You think _yours_ will,” Adam said, jumping off the steps and circling the porch to grab his own bike leaning against the wall of the house. It had become even more battered and worn since this time last year, particularly because one of the pedals was now slightly bent from when Gansey had accidentally backed the Pig into it a couple weeks ago. There were subsequently a number of tiny dent marks littered along the injured pedal, from Ronan and Adam’s futile attempts to hammer it back into shape until they could get a new pedal to replace it. The result was a functional, yet misshapen and slightly sad-looking pedal.

“Shitbox in bike-form,” Ronan commented, as Adam wheeled the poor bike towards them. “Shitbike.”

"Shitbike," Adam nodded sagely, making it clear that the pair of them had already discussed this and dubbed it so.

“I think it’s cool,” Blue said, leaning to look at the battered pedal. “It’s got some battle wounds; this bike’s _seen _things.”

“You say that like we haven’t,” Ronan pointed out bluntly, folding his arms and catching Blue’s eye. They looked at one another for a second or two, before Adam let out a breathy laugh. They both turned to him in surprise and he covered his mouth, either startled himself by the outburst, or else trying to suppress another laugh.

“The fuck, Parrish?” Ronan said, the corners of his lips quirking despite himself. Adam shook his head, dropping his hand and pulling himself together.

“Sorry. I just… I was thinking about how surreal this last year has been.”

Blue smirked; he was right, the last year had been the most eventful, ridiculous and probably traumatising year of their lives; it felt bizarre and oddly funny to think back on, for reasons Blue couldn’t quite pin down.

“We probably all need therapy at this point, right?” she said, before pausing and adding, “Although, actually, that would be a very bad idea. What could we even say? 'Hey, I killed my boyfriend with a kissing curse and then resurrected him with magic.'”

The boys bit back their laughter and Blue shook her head, her own smile becoming difficult to hide.

“I killed and buried the body of a nightmare that I dreamt into existence, is that normal?” Ronan added, arms still crossed, and Blue put her hand to her mouth with laughter. Adam snorted, before adding:

“You probably get this all the time; I sacrificed myself to a sentient forest but then it sacrificed itself to save her boyfriend_._”

Ronan laughed at that, tipping his head back to look at the sky. When he tilted his head back down he looked between the other two with a fiery grin.

“Well. We’re fucked.”

Adam shrugged, stepping one leg over his bike and resting his foot on the pedal.

“Bike rides could always be a form of therapy?” he suggested, exchanging a smirk with Blue. Ronan took this as his queue and pushed off the railing.

“Have fun at therapy then, losers.”

Opal materialized from around the side of the house again and Ronan stooped down and caught her as she tried to race past, hoisting her over his shoulder. She growled at him, despite the fierce grin on her face, and kicked her shaggy legs playfully.

“You want to go catch some fireflies, runt?” he asked her, putting her back down. She hopped from one leg to the other, nodding her head enthusiastically. Adam was looking at the pair of them with the softest and fondest smile Blue had ever seen on him. Looking at him then, he seemed so far from the boy she had first met; his features seemed to fall so easily into that smile these days.

“Let’s go,” he said to Blue, as Opal and Ronan set off around the house again, Opal cartwheeling as she went.

* * *

They set off cycling along the dirt path leading from the house, and Adam took them off-road and into the larger fields. Blue had missed cycling with him; despite only going on one bike ride together, it had been one of her most cherished memories with him. After they had eaten their pizza on top of that hill they had raced their way back down, the wind rushing through their hair. The pair of them had been so free on those bikes that day, laughing hard and shouting at one another over the sound of the wind in their ears. They had been good together, at one point in time. Thinking back on it, she felt such a fondness for the younger Blue & Adam; they were trying their best, despite everything. Attempting to understand one another, taking careful steps together, hand in hand; figuring their dynamic out. Now that he was one of her best friends, the idea of them ever being together romantically seemed funny and strange. She often wished that that she could've done things differently towards the end of their relationship; been more honest with him earlier on. But then again, she supposed there was no point in wishing for it to be different when it had brought them to where they are today.

Adam had taken them up and through the field that kept all the sleeping cattle, and they slowly weaved in between the dormant creatures, careful not to accidentally touch or knock them.

“I wonder if Ronan’ll figure out how to wake them,” Blue said pensively, as the pair of them crossed paths to circle one of the cows, inspecting its sleeping form as they passed it.

“I think he will,” Adam said, voice surprisingly sure. Blue looked at him questioningly as they continued through the maze of sleeping cattle, and he smiled; "he was getting close last year. He dreamt this... I don't know how to describe it. Impossible dreamstuff. An energy for dream things." 

Blue shook her head a little. Ronan's powers still took her breath away; it had been one of the first real clues that Ronan was more than the just hard and sharp exterior he projected into the world. The first clue that maybe Ronan wasn't such a shithead, that maybe he was also creative and wishful and impossible, like everyone else that Blue cherished in her life. That maybe they could unravel one another's personalities enough to find a warped reflection of themselves looking back at them through the eyes of the other person. Adam had once told her that she and Ronan were two sides of the same coin, and although the context had been Adam watching the pair of them have a sliding competition through the slippery mud in the fields back in the Spring, Blue felt that it still applied to them in a more general sense too.

"His magic is _so_ cool. It's infuriating," she said, before quickly looking up at Adam with wide eyes. Predictably, he was giving her a knowing smirk. "Oh, you did _not_ hear that."

Adam laughed and nodded, before saying, "Hear what?" 

They cycled through the herd of sleeping cows, and into the next field. Blue could see that Adam and Ronan had already driven large circles into the field with the BMW; the drying upturned mud and uprooted grass seemed to render it pretty much useless for anything else. They both cycled carefully around the tire gashes in the dirt, trying to avoid either of their bikes losing the will to live on the uneven surface.

"I'm going to miss you next year," Adam said over his shoulder. Blue cycled up on his hearing side, so that her bike was level with his.

"I'm going to miss you too," she said. They exchanged bittersweet smiles; she could see so much honest friendship tucked into that smile of his.

Soon Blue would leaving for her road trip with Gansey and Henry, and Adam would be heading off to some amazing and yet-to-be-determined college in the autumn. Despite Ronan’s complaining about not being invited on this bike ride, he and Blue had actually hung out together quite regularly over the last few months. Ronan had come by Fox Way a few times with a load of his old shirts for her that he'd found lying around at the the Barns, and the two of them had hung out in Blue’s room, listening to weird music on the radio. Ronan usually brought Chainsaw with him, because she loved to dig through Blues craft box, and Blue would sit opposite them on her bed, a pair of scissors in one hand and a needle & thread in the other, trying to figure out how she was going to transform the old shirts into interesting items of clothing for herself. Time with Adam, however, had been a lot more sparing, due to his heavy workload and their constantly clashing schedules. 

"Do you think you'll go to college after your gap year?" Adam asked, as they continued to cycle idly, side by side. Blue sighed, fixing her gaze on the ground ahead of them.

"I don't know. I wanted to apply to this school for ecology in New York but my high school counsellor told me she thought it was a reach school."

"A 'reach' school?"

Blue glanced at Adam to see him looking at her, eyebrows pinched together in quiet indignation at her counsellor's words.

"It's really competitive. And the tuition fees are crazy high - I don't know if I could get into a school like that anyway."

"Blue, if you want to go to that school you should apply for it. That counsellor sounds like she doesn't know you at all." Adam said, as they cycled along the edge of the woods at the end of the Barns. Blue chewed on her bottom lip, thinking about what the counsellor had said. _Financial aid would be very competitive. _

Adam asked, "What courses were you looking at?"

Blue smiled as she recalled the courses she'd researched at the library. "Environmental Studies; Forest Ecosystem Science; Environmental Biology. I was saving up all through high school for something like that, but I don't know if it's enough.”

"Apply for scholarships," Adam said, resolutely. "Apply for financial aid. Keep saving your money from work. I’m not going to say it’s easy but it’s not impossible. And I can always help you figure out the applications if you want. Just don't give up on it yet, Blue. There’s nothing to stop you from trying.”

Blue looked up at him again; she smiled, touched by the unwavering expression on his face.

“You’re a good friend, Adam,” she said honestly, holding his gaze for a moment. He looked a little surprised by her words, but his features still melted into a soft smile. Blue returned her eyes to the worn path at the edge of the field they were cycling along. “Maybe Gansey, Henry and I can stop to look around the school when we’re off travelling. Hey, if I go to study at that school and you get into Harvard or Yale then we’d be in neighbouring states!”

Adam settled her with a steady look that almost, _almost_, hid from Blue just how much he wanted that.

“I might not get in, Blue”

“You’ll get in. Trust me, my mother’s a psychic. I know these things.”

Blue saw Adam’s chest hitch in quiet laughter as he turned his gaze back to the field ahead of them, shaking his head a little.

“I don’t think that’s quite how it works.”

“What, you don’t believe me?” Blue challenged with a smirk, playfully swerving her bike closer to his and then away again. “You think I’m a liar? Is that what you’re saying?”

Adam just laughed at her, before replying, “Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”

“Fine, don’t believe me. It’s going to happen, though. You’ll see.”

Adam breathed out, his fingers flexing and tightening over the handlebars of his bike apprehensively, his smile fading a little.

“I can’t think about it too much. Not until I start getting responses from them.”

“Okay,” Blue replied, recognising the anxiety in his voice, “we’ll talk about something else.”

Adam gave her a grateful smile, and nodded to the upcoming fence between two of the fields.

“Want to go sit over there?”

“Sure. Race you?”

“On foot this time.”

Blue smirked; they jumped off their bikes and ran over to the fence silhouetted against the setting sun, leaving their bikes lying in the grass behind them. Adam was just ahead of her and she leapt to try and close the distance, but he stooped and swiped a handful of grass from the ground as he ran, tossing it over his shoulder at her.

“Hey!” Blue shouted, part humour, part outrage, as she shielded her face with her hands. She caught the sound of Adam's laugh ahead; he hit the fence running, the force of his impact causing him to seesaw a little over it. He was grinning at her when she jogged the rest of the way to join him. “Cheat,” she said, out of breath, as she reached the fence; she nudged his shoulder with her knuckles and climbed up to sit beside him. Adam's face appeared unbothered.

“Yeah, I can't imagine what that feels like," he mused, "to have someone cheat in a race with you."

“_Ha_,” Blue deadpanned, as he gave her a wicked smirk. “What is it about this place that makes everyone want to throw grass at me?”

The distant scream of Opal's laughter echoed from back at the house, and the two of them turned their heads in the direction of the sound. Ronan appeared to be holding Opal up over his head as she swooped an empty jam jar through the constellation of fireflies around them.

"This place makes you _wild_," Adam muttered after a few moments; the smile traced along the line of his lips suggested that, to him, 'wild' was far from being a bad thing.

Blue said, "Wild is good?"

"Wild is good," Adam nodded, eyes still fixed on the shadowy figures of Opal and Ronan shrouded in the floating lights. He seemed to sense Blue's eyes on him, and he raised an eyebrow, gaze turning towards her suspiciously.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm not."

Adam gave her a look, which she held briefly before she rolling her eyes with a sigh.

"Okay, I need to say something," she said. He looked at her questioningly and she awkwardly scrunched her nose under his stare. "But I'm really bad at this so can you just, um. Can you keep looking back over there as I talk?"

"You’re - what?"

"There.” Blue insisted, nodding towards Ronan and Opal. He widened his eyes a little in confusion, the semblance of a humorous smile on his face, but he obligingly turned his gaze back in the direction of the house. Blue took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then opened them and twisted around on the fence to face him.

"Okay," she said, watching his profile carefully, the setting sun making his dusty hair appear to glow at the edges. "I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry."

She saw his eyebrows pull down into a frown, but she continued; "I should've said it weeks ago. Months ago. I wasn't honest with you about Gansey, or my feelings or why I wouldn't kiss you. I should’ve just talked to you. I think all of it was just so new to me; you were the first person I ever ‘dated’ and I didn’t handle it like I should’ve.”

"Blue," Adam began, his eyes dropping to the grass beneath them reproachfully. “You don’t have to-”

"No, listen. I know we're in a good place now, but I don't want to keep remembering how ugly things got, knowing that I never apologised. Especially now that we're going to be in different places for a while. I didn't want to leave without saying anything; I’m so sorry, Adam."

Her voice felt a little uneven, and her eyes were starting to sting a little, to her surprise; she was relieved that he couldn’t see her face as she blinked away the sharp tears.

Adam was quiet, eyes still on the ground. Then he spoke softly, “I’m sorry too. For pressuring you to kiss me. For getting angry in front of you. There was already so much going on with Cabeswater, and at the time I just felt like I had _nothing_ left to lose. It wasn’t fair of me to demand you kiss me; I should’ve respected your boundaries, no matter the reasons.” He finally looked up at her and she saw the familiar crease between his eyebrows. “I’m so sorry. For everything.”

Blue held his gaze, and he reached over to wipe a tear from her cheek with his knuckle, which made her laugh breathily.

“You’re forgiven,” she said, leaning towards him to wrap her arms around him from the side, her cheek pressed against the bump of his shoulder. “Of course you’re forgiven.”

“You're forgiven too,” he replied, tilting his head sideways to rest on hers, his arm wrapping around her. They sat like that for a while, both watching Ronan and Opal playing in the slowly forming darkness. Ronan noticed them watching and stooped to say something to Opal; she was the same height as him when he crouched, the closed jam jar held tight in both of her hands as she listened to him. Then she nodded and twisted off the cap to the jar, holding it up in the air and releasing a handful of dream fireflies into the darkness, like a tiny impossible firework. Adam and Blue both laughed as a few of them spiralled into Ronan’s face, causing him to fall back onto one hand.

"Adam?" Blue asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Blue?"

"Promise that whatever happens, we’ll find the time to go on a bike ride together at least once a year."

Adam's mouth was closed but she felt him breathe out a laugh through his nose, before replying.

"I promise."

**Author's Note:**

> this ended up being WAY longer than I had planned but I hope you enjoyed it !! 
> 
> the idea was born from a conversation in the crying club discord gc a while ago, about blue & adam's friendship and how under-appreciated their dynamic is. (It's also based on literally one of the happiest dreams I've ever had, in which I went on a bike ride with adam through the virginian countryside)
> 
> anyway, let me know if you enjoyed it, I'd love any feedback or comments! 💕


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